Judges work only 46 days in a year: Justice Choudry

In Summary

• Justice Choudry, who was responding to retired Supreme Court judge Wilson Kato’s concern of the need to appoint more judges, said judges work for only 46 out of the 365 days in a year, which keeps the case backlog piling.

Entebbe. High Court Judge Anup Singh Choudry has said Uganda does not need more judges to clear case backlog, but only check the judges’ performance.
Justice Choudry, who was responding to retired Supreme Court judge Wilson Kato’s concern of the need to appoint more judges, said judges work for only 46 out of the 365 days in a year, which keeps the case backlog piling.
“The working days in the courts for judges are only 46 in a year and that backlog would never come down even if 100 more judges were appointed,” Justice Choudry told fellow judges during the just concluded judges’ conference at Imperial Resort Beach Hotel in Entebbe.
Uganda has only 56 High Court judges, but President Museveni recently appointed six more who have, however, not yet been sworn in yet.
The judge submitted that the performance of judges should be based on international commercial formula of man hours, and that that is how organisations determine the productivity of their personnel. (NMG)